CREAF

The consolidation of interconnectivity in the global network has been possible thanks to the adoption of international standards. Environmental data is not an exception to this phenomenon, but its geospatial component requires new ways of visualizing, processing and transporting information. The integrated usage of data from different origins is only possible through international agreements that allow rapid consensual adoption of recent technological innovations. In this process experts from around the world and involved. They analyze the new requirements and formulate open solutions that all actors can freely adopt. This way, the development of environmental spatial data infrastructures at the European level (INSPIRE) or globally (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) is possible. They serve in the creation of knowledge about global change and the impacts of human societies that are useful for the decisions making.

CREAF contributes to this discipline in two ways: On the one hand, it brings its knowledge, sometimes leading the creation or revision of international standards. On the other hand, it releases cutting-edge and high efficiency technological implementations. It also advises and contributes to their deployment, both in the research and academic world, as well as in the public administration and private sector. CREAF is a reference in standardization and contributes this knowledge to complement research and innovation projects of national, European and global scope. In particular, the work on geospatial standards is carried out by the Research Group on Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GRUMETS).

The main lines of work and experience of CREAF in this field include:

• Leadership in the creation of international standards: Creating and reviewing geospatial standards for data visualization (WMS, WMTS), encoding (GeoJSON), download of data (WCS, GMLJP2), data documentation (Geospatial User Feedback), and preservation and packaging of data and metadata (ISO 19165, MMZX). Active participation in international organizations such as the Open Geospatial Consortium.
• Implementation and adoption of standards: Implementation of applications and practices that increase interoperability among research environments in biodiversity, ecosystems, water, citizen science, administration, etc.
• Creation of interoperable products and technologies: Remote Sensing tools and distributed Geographical Information Systems incorporate the latest international standards and serve as pilot programs for the adoption of new standards candidates.
• Data quality: CREAF maintains a quality measures vocabulary (QualityML) and promotes the correct documentation of the data quality, lineage and usage of data products and services.
• Viewing services, downloading data: The data produced by CREAF or the projects in which it participates is made available through interoperable servers and map portals.
• Web sensors, distributed processing and data modeling for automatic generation of knowledge: Research is done on the management of automatic sensor data and the automatic processing of data to assist in the knowledge creation process.
• Data management and preservation: CREAF pilots and refines innovative data management and preservation policies and principles based on international standards and performs data management and migration to ensure its preservation.